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17th March 2024
12:51am GMT
As it all played out, at Aviva Stadium, the hard-fought manner of Ireland's win over Scotland made the Six Nations title taste that much sweeter. Andy Farrell hailed his players for clinching back-to-back titles.
Stung by a defeat to Italy, Scotland still had a Triple Crown to play for and put it up to their hosts in the first half. Ireland led 7-6 at the break but came out with all guns (canons and whatever else they could find) blazing. They stretched the lead to four points before setting up camp inside the Scottish half for long stretches.
The Television Match Official ruled out possible scores for Tadhg Furlong and Robbie Henshaw until Andrew Porter eventually forced his way over after a Rónan Kelleher quick-tap penalty. The move, from all of five metres out, was beautifully constructed but Farrell and captain Peter O'Mahony joked that it was not all perfect.
FARRELL: We set it up well didn't we? Honestly, we’d three set-plays from tap five metres before the line, one of them that we’ve not done. We’d not done any throughout [the championship] and we’ve been practicing day in, day out to get right.
O'MAHONY: We made a bollocks of it!
FARRELL: (Laughing) We made a bollocks of it yesterday in the captain's run here, but we set it up nicely because the first one was direct, the second one, I suppose they thought the directness was coming again but a bit of subtlety, Andrew Porter charging on the inside was a nice one for us but we’ve still got one in the bag.
As you will see from the short sequence (below) Kelleher taps and charges, with FOUR passing options available to him. Tadhg Beirne and Ryan Baird run blocking lines, essentially, and Jamison Gibson-Park feints left before the hooker flicks back to a charging Andrew Porter. Finlay Bealham and Josh van der Flier know what is coming and they latch onto Porter to drive him over the line:
Up next for Ireland - second in the world and double Six Nations champions - is a summer trip to South Africa after the URC and European season wraps.
Andy Farrell reckoned the narrow 23-22 loss to England, last weekend, may ultimately prove to be 'the best thing' for a side taking on a new identity after some senior stars moved on, and were injured.
"Some of these lads, subconsciously now - not through their own doing - they’ve been used to winning," Farrell noted. "They have, but the special thing about the Six Nations, and why the Grand Slams are so hard to do is that it changes week on week like we all know.
"Some people are fighting for their lives and for this group. For some of the lads who are not used to losing at all, I don’t know - I’ll have to ask them - do they get to point where they’re turning up for games actually thinking, 'We’re doing it’? You’re never doing it.
"You’re never doing it in the Six Nations because things changes week to week and that Test match last week was a proper Test match in Twickenham, and so it should be. We’ll learn the lessons from that and that will be powerful for us going forward like this one was tonight."
Peter O'Mahony, meanwhile, stated that he would give some time, in the coming days, to consider his international future. It has been reported by The Irish Times that a Munster contract, topped up by the IRFU, is on the table for one more season. The Cork native has now led Munster to URC glory and Ireland to a Six Nations title and declared, "I still love it."
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